Skip to main content

Obedience, Purity and Love


Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For,

“All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
 but the word of the Lord stands forever.”
And this is the word that was preached to you. (I Peter 1:22-25)


          Do we have to come back to this? Why can't we just all get along?
          Oh yes, we have to keep coming back to these essentials. How do we become pure? By obeying the truth. That means submission. Not my will, but God's, even if everything in me screams "I want... I need...I deserve...I demand!" Even if it kills me, not my will but God's. Without this obedience, there is no purity.
         How do we love and love deeply? By being pure, which means by being obedient. We love by being "without wax." It used to be that impure, unloving, unscrupulous pottery vendors would fill in cracks and flaws in their inventory using wax. If you held the cracked pot up, you could see where the wax was because it's where the light shines through.  Of course, we're all cracked pots, but God works miracles. He accepts cracked pots and commands us not to wax ourselves or our love. Our love must be pure clay - no wax allowed.
         So, to love sincerely and deeply, we have to be pure, which means we have to be obedient. Obedient to what or to whom? In the next verses, we are told that man is like grass. The Word of the Lord is living and enduring. It stands forever. Our own word dies. Being obedient to ourselves, even being obedient to our DNA doesn't make us pure. It doesn't give us life. It makes us selfish. Pretending otherwise is applying wax. It's selling a lie that won't hold water, or real love.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...